What luxuries would you miss most if you ran out of money?

[madzone]

I'll let you know at the end of next week.

You skint as well, chick?

We can swap tips on how many times we can reuse tea bags. It'll be such fun

*claps hands*

 

[Badgers]

How people measure quality of life is fascinating.

I would be quite happy to be poor if I could still access the internet, have a secure roof over my head and enough food to survive.

I think the thing I value most (aside from my wife) is time rather than things. I would love to have more free time and would happily waste my life reading, writing and exploring.

 

[moomoo]

You skint as well, chick?

We can swap tips on how many times we can reuse tea bags. It'll be such fun

*claps hands*

Fun indeed....................


*Gets into the spirit of things and rummages in the bin for lunch*

 

[madzone]

How people measure quality of life is fascinating.

I would be quite happy to be poor if I could still access the internet, have a secure roof over my head and enough food to survive.

I think the thing I value most (aside from my wife) is time rather than things. I would love to have more free time and would happily waste my life reading, writing and exploring.

Ahhh, that's the other thing --- books

Thank god fer't library

 

[sojourner]

Sanitary towels
Toilet Paper

Not exactly luxuries though are they ip?

 

[madzone]

Fun indeed....................


*Gets into the spirit of things and rummages in the bin for lunch*

Actually, I'm quite excited by the challenge

 

[zenie]

I saw a thing on the money saving expert forum where they attempt to live on 4 grand a year! (This exludes rent/mortgage and basic bills mind)

I think thats 76 quid or so a week, I dunno how much I spend but I think most of us'd be shocked to work out how much we spend a week if we noted it all down.

 

[Brainaddict]

Ahhh, that's the other thing --- books

Thank god fer't library

Indeed, there's never any need to lack for books. In addition to the library you will discover that most major bookchains don't bother to electronically tag their paperbacks and that CCTV only covers parts of the shops

 

[sojourner]

Indeed, there's never any need to lack for books. In addition to the library you will discover that most major bookchains don't bother to electronically tag their paperbacks and that CCTV only covers parts of the shops

 

[madzone]

I saw a thing on the money saving expert forum where they attempt to live on 4 grand a year! (This exludes rent/mortgage and basic bills mind)

I think thats 76 quid or so a week, I dunno how much I spend but I think most of us'd be shocked to work out how much we spend a week if we noted it all down.

I did add it all up about 18 months ago and even with producing most of our own food I was still spending £100 a week at the supermarket

That stopped pretty sharpish but I still spent way too much on stuff we didn't really need. Not any more though - just can't do it anymore.

 

[zenie]

I thoguht about taking part, I need to curb my spending a lot of that come from not doing a weekly shop and planning meals so I'll just go to the local shop and buy as and when which works out loads more than going to markets and using a bit of meat to make several meals out of.

I reckon I could easily live on 76 quid a week if I put my mind to it (That includes all leisure activities as well mind!)

 

[Orang Utan]

I saw a thing on the money saving expert forum where they attempt to live on 4 grand a year! (This exludes rent/mortgage and basic bills mind)

I think thats 76 quid or so a week, I dunno how much I spend but I think most of us'd be shocked to work out how much we spend a week if we noted it all down.

Sounds quite easy

 

[zenie]

Sounds quite easy

Have a read then

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=640131

Oh it doesn't include electric or gas bills!

 

[pinkmonkey]

Where you buy food really counts when you're skint. I didn't take buses, I cycled to Edmonton Green shopping centre, which looks really grim but was an excellent source of incredibly low priced fruit n veg from the indoor market in there. Like Madzone, I treated it as a challenge. I managed to get the food bill down to £30 for the two of us. We became scavengers as well, all our wood (for the stove) came from dumped pallets from the industrial estates that are near where we live. Best find when we were broke was what we thought was dumped by a Chinese dvd pirating racket. On a side road round the back of the reservoir we found loads of dvds, (some of them worked! Woohoo!) along with empty Chinese cigarette packets.
Could we live on four grand a year? Probably.

 

[zenie]

Could we live on four grand a year? Probably.

I might start a thread...unsure where to put it though!

 

[Brainaddict]

£76 a week after housing and basic bills sounds very doable to me. Dole is £50 and that has to cover all bills. Admittedly being on the dole is not fun, but £76 would also give you some money to go out - you'd just have to seriously limit your drinking - which would be good for your liver anyway

ETA: ah, if you have to pay gas and electric too then it is more comparable to the dole - but still more money!

 

[Orang Utan]

Have a read then

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=640131

Oh it doesn't include electric or gas bills!

It doesn't? Oh, that would be more difficult.
My leccy and gas bills are £700 a year, so that leaves £3200 - that leaves around £60 a week for food and leisure - that's certainly doable. I'd continue to eat well and just go out less and learn to darn my clothes

 

[Orang Utan]

In Tom Hodgkinson's How To Be Free, he covers this extensively - Penny Rimbaud from Crass claims to have never paid tax as he's never earned more than £5K a year and he lives a reasonably comfortable existence

 

[rioted]

eating foods from different cultures.

old world wine.

Dahl & rice, rice &peas, British sherry. How much more culture do you need?

 

[moomoo]

That's all well and good if you are living on your own but it's a different matter when you are trying to feed and clothe 3 growing children.

 

[rioted]

That's all well and good if you are living on your own but it's a different matter when you are trying to feed and clothe 3 growing children.

But surely, they'd have £4000 each, too. Which takes you well over the money I did it on.

 

[madzone]

That's all well and good if you are living on your own but it's a different matter when you are trying to feed and clothe 3 growing children.

With all their varying food fads and school stuff

 

[madzone]

But surely, they'd have £4000 each, too. Which takes you well over the money I did it on.

I don't think it works like that does it?

 

[moomoo]

But surely, they'd have £4000 each, too. Which takes you well over the money I did it on.

I wish we had £16,000 per year to live on. That would be lovely!

 

[rioted]

With all their varying food fads and school stuff

They don't need that, though, do they?

 

[moomoo]

They don't need that, though, do they?

I'd rather starve than refuse to pay for my kids to go on a school trip.

 

[zenie]

That's all well and good if you are living on your own but it's a different matter when you are trying to feed and clothe 3 growing children.

If you read the thread I linked to it explains that's it's 4k because this is the usual level of benefits you'd receive to live on but goes on to say

If you have a family, then you should be in receipt of Family Allowance/Child Benefit, so your target would be £4000 + Child Benefit.

 

[Orang Utan]

I'd rather starve than refuse to pay for my kids to go on a school trip.

I only went on a few when I was a nipper and I'm still here

 

[Brainaddict]

I only went on a few when I was a nipper and I'm still here

It is a bit humiliating as a kid though, to not be able to go on the trips cos of money. But then so is wearing a school jumper of slightly the wrong shade of blue - a lot of things are humiliating to kids So yeah, hardly long term damage or anything.

 

[sojourner]

I only went on a few when I was a nipper and I'm still here

Heh - I only went on one, and NOW look at me

I only did cooking a few times too, cos me mum couldn't afford the ingredients. She used to go mad at me and tell me to tell the teacher that if they wanted me to do cooking, then they could buy the ingredients